Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Is perfume like beef, pork, milk and eggs? That’s what Yale Hollander asks as he sizes up the Fragrance Foundation’s late entry into cooperative marketing.

You’ve tried all the flavored vodkas and you’re sick of icky appletinis. Where do you turn? To California, of course, where artisan distiller Lance Winters is collecting plant material to flavor a new gin: “a Joaquin Miller blend that would evoke the bay laurel, cedar and fennel found in the Oakland hills.”

Make a note, Taj. Celebrity fragrance mania sets a new low: Van Wilder is the new Hugo Boss.

I'm a sensory psychologist. My specialty is olfaction --the strange and wonderful world of smell. I've worked in academia and the corporate world, published my research in scientific journals, and written a book on the science of smell.